Shanghai launches cross-border digital authentication for foreign business registration

Shanghai has launched a cross‑border digital identity system that lets foreign companies register online, starting with eligible Singaporean investors.

The system replaces a paper-heavy process that required notarised documents and in‑person verification. Registration that previously took a week can now be completed in days.

The model uses distributed digital identity, verifiable credentials and blockchain-based checks to confirm the identities of authorized signatories. Companies submit identity information and electronic signatures remotely, and regulators verify them without physical paperwork.

The first company to use the system was Chuangxing Food (Shanghai) Co Ltd, owned by Singapore’s IFBH Limited. Its registration was completed in two days, and the firm expects to begin operations in the Hongqiao business district shortly.

Shanghai’s Data Bureau said cross‑border digital identity remains a global challenge and that the system took more than two years of collaboration with Singapore to develop. Announced at the Global Data Ecosystem Conference 2025, the initiative stems from efforts led by the Shanghai Data Bureau and the Shanghai Electronic Certification Authority (SHECA), which earlier established a cross-border digital trust platform to explore digital identity interoperability.

The city plans to extend the model to help Shanghai‑based firms entering Singapore and to promote it to other countries participating in China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), an economic strategy encompassing a geographic range loosely based on the ancient silk road.

Shanghai authorities worked with Singapore’s Infocomm Media Development Authority and the Singapore Academy of Law to pilot the first application of digital identity interoperability. Using Decentralized Identifiers (DID) and Verifiable Credentials (VC), the project tested how Singaporean corporate investors could complete foreign-invested enterprise registration in Shanghai entirely online.

Singapore is one of Shanghai’s largest sources of foreign‑invested enterprises, behind only the U.S. and Japan. IFBH, active in the Asian coconut water market, said Shanghai’s location and business environment were key factors in choosing the city for its China headquarters, according to Jiefang Daily.

Shanghai is a commercial hotbed for Mainland China, with the city having a pilot free trade zone (FTZ) in Shanghai’s Lin-gang Special Area. The FTZ is home to BOCOM Fintech which advocates for the LEI and its digital counterpart the verifiable Lei (vLEI) as an international passport for legal entities.

Article Topics

cross border identity verification  |  digital company ID  |  digital identity  |  KYB  |  Shanghai  |  Singapore